Brad Nisbet, program manager for IDC Storage Systems, noted that storage systems posted strong growth in a quarter when server sales declined 2 percent. "The comparable positive growth of external disk systems points to the importance of storage in helping customers improve overall business efficiency," he said. "Customers continue to increase their reliance on business data and seek cost-effective ways to store, protect, and manage this critical data."

EMC maintained its lead in the external market with a 21.8 percent revenue share, growing 12.6 percent in the quarter. HP came in second with a 17.9 percent share and 10.2 percent growth. IBM had its strongest first quarter in years, Nisbet said, with 14.8 percent growth and a 12 percent share. Dell was number four with 16.5 percent growth and an 8.2 percent share, and Hitachi had an 8.1 percent share on -2.7 percent growth. Hitachi sales do not reflect the company's OEM sales to Sun and HP.

The total network disk storage market (NAS combined with open and iSCSISAN) grew 15.4 percent year-over-year to more than $2.8 billion. EMC continued to maintain leadership with 28.7 percent revenue share, followed by HP and IBM with 19.3 percent and 10.7 percent revenue share, respectively. Network Appliance and IBM had the strongest revenue growth among the top five, with 24.4 percent and 22.6 percent growth, respectively.

In the NAS market, which grew 14.7 percent, EMC again led with 37.1 percent revenue share, followed by NetApp with a 34.4 percent share. The iSCSI SAN market continued to show strong momentum, growing 37.7 percent to $92 million. NetApp led once again with a 29.7 percent share, followed by EMC's 24.2 percent share.

In the total worldwide disk storage systems market, HP led with a 22.9 percent share, followed by IBM with 17.9 percent. EMC maintained the third position with a 15.6 percent share.

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